Pubdate: Fri, 02 Nov 2012
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388

AMSTERDAM COFFEE SHOPS TO STAY OPEN DESPITE LAW

New York Times

Paris -- Amsterdam's 220 coffee shops, where marijuana and hashish are
openly sold and consumed, will remain open next year in spite of a new
Dutch law meant to reduce drug tourism, the city's mayor said in an
interview published Thursday.

The mayor, Eberhard van der Laan, told the Dutch newspaper De
Volkskrant that he had made the decision after considering the
unintended consequences that would arise from a ban, including a
revival of black market trade. He also noted that the current system
allows for the government to monitor the quality of soft drugs and to
limit access to the coffee shops, something that would be impossible
if the trade were again to become clandestine.

"The 1.5 million tourists will not say, 'then no more marijuana,' "
van der Laan told De Volkskrant, according to a transcript of the
interview provided by his office. "They will swarm all over the city
looking for drugs. This would lead to more robberies, quarrels about
fake drugs, and no control of the quality of drugs on the market.
Everything we have worked toward would be lost to misery."

The Dutch have long tolerated the coffee shops, although the sale of
marijuana remains technically illegal. But tolerance has come under
fire, partly from concern about the criminality that surrounds the
supply.

But it was a growing traffic nuisance in southern municipalities like
Maastricht, where Belgians and Germans drove to buy drugs, that proved
the tipping point. The Dutch government announced two years ago that
sales to nonresidents would be prohibited nationwide on Jan. 1, 2013.
Only Dutch residents who registered with a coffee shop would be
legally allowed to go to the coffee shops, which were to be turned
into members-only clubs.

Van der Laan's office said he had assured the government "that
criminality and related problems around coffee shops will be strongly
addressed and that marijuana use among young people will be further
countered."

In the interview, van der Laan denied that he was acting as "an errand
boy for coffee shop owners," and promised that he would strictly
enforce rules regarding sales to minors and the strength of the soft
drugs sold.

It is not, he added, a question of the potential loss of tourism
revenue from the international visitors to the city's coffee shops.

"Flat economic motives" plays absolutely no role, he said, adding:
"The 1.5 million tourists are not visiting only the coffee shops."
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MAP posted-by: Matt